BABY GIRL

I know, I know, I massively suck for not keeping my blog updated throughout this pregnancy… :(

But just and update! Although it has been a few months and most everyone already knows, but we are having a GIRL!! We have decided on a name: Averie Xela Durfee

Averie cause I have loved that name for years and finally wore Matt down enough to let me have it.
Xela: because this is a major city in Guatemala that Matt served part of his mission in, so it has special meaning to him.

Out due date is still September 2nd and things are progressing along great. Besides a little back-pain constantly, Mamma and Baby are doing great. She is getting bigger and she is just starting to find more room under my ribs. Fun Stuff!!

We almost have her room done, about everything is bought, we just need to finish putting it together and hanging all up. I will ‘try’ to post pics when it is done!

I am having 2 baby showers… one in Maricopa and one in Gilbert… If you didn’t get an invite the post office must have lost it! Feel free to contact me or one of my sisters for details, cause you are defiantly invited!!

Gilbert Shower: 6/26, 10 to noon
Maricopa Shower: 7/10, 10 to noon

Here is a pic from when we found out it was a girl, sorry it isn’t great. Matt sent it to me as a screen print. Love you all and hope you are all doing well!


Here is a pic from when we found out it was a girl, sorry it isn’t great. Matt sent it to me as a screen print. Love you all and hope you are all doing well!

Back in business...

Ok, ok… so I know that I am awful at updating our blog lately (past year)… but I would like to get back into it… so here goes… A clean slate, a fresh start, a blank canvass… blah blah blah…

Well for those of you that don’t know yet… we are finally PREGNANT!!! YEAH!!! It has been a long, rough road for us and we have finally been bless w/ this little miracle. If you know someone struggling w/ infertility send them my way… I have found a great doc!!

We found out that we were expecting the day after Christmas… it was the best gift ever… although I didn’t believe it for the 1st few weeks, until it was confirmed. I am now starting to show a tiny bit and am hoping to ‘pop’ soon, so I don’t just feel fat all the time. We get to find out what were are having on April 6th!! We can’t wait!! We are hoping for a girl, but will be more than happy w/ either… take the poll and guess what we are having…

Karlee and I are still doing cotton candy, and are pro’s now that we have been doing it over a year now… it is great for a little extra shoes/purse $.

Matt and I were able to go to Maui, Hawaii in July and loved every second of it! We went w/ 2 other couples from Maricopa and had a blast. Matt’s parents are recently serving a mission in Cosa Rica and we are hoping to be able to visit them before the baby comes…

We are going to be buying a new to us/used care soon, as mine just won’t work w/ a car seat… So if you know of anyone that is looking for a Scion TC let me know, we will cut them a good deal…

That is about it… I’m still working at Hanjin, and Matt is still working for BlackBox/City of Phoenix. We have been serving in our wards nursery, for the last 6-8 months and enjoying every minute of it. Although we feel a change on the horizon… we will see.

Keep me updated in your lives, I just don’t get to talk/see everyone regularly enough. We love you all and are so lucky to have you in our lives.

Love, Matt, Amber and Lil Durf

COTTON CANDY

I don't know anyone who doesn't LOVE Cotton Candy, and only $1 - what a deal!!

Well I'm not sure who knows and who doesn't. But Karlee and I recently started up our own little business.
We have a friend Awnya in our ward and she had a Cotton Candy business. Her husband got a better job, and they recently moved to Utah. (our Bunco group already misses her).
So being the Entrepreneurs that is born into our blood we decided to buy a cotton candy machine and take over the Maricopa Cotton Candy business. Awnya was kind enough to answer all our questions, and give us all her contacts, and we are off and running!

Well this past weekend was our first event at a fundraiser. It was a success (at least we came out on top) and we learned alot. We are excited for some more of the upcoming shows.

Here are some pics from our Saturday event. My Dad is now making the marble games you see in the pics, and selling them for $40, if anyone is interested.


You can also see the Suns Gorilla showed up for a while with a few of the Suns Dancers. (Highlight of the day for my Dad)

Gorilla with our good friend Debbie that stoped by for suport.


I got my face painted like a butterfly. It is fun being able to act like a kid again.

If you have any great ideas for us, let us know. Carnivals, Fundraisers, Birthday parties, Festivals, we are looking for more events!!

New Babies

Well I was going to update my blog and when I plugged in my camera to upload my pics... I discovered my Husband took my memory card out and has not put it back.

So I'll be doing just a short update on my new Niece and new Nephew from the past couple of months. I stole all these pics off their facebook since I can't use my camera.

Our little man August was born on 1/7, one day before his Daddy's B-day. They were trying to plan to be induced on Jason's Birthday, but he wanted out a little early.

There were some complication with the delivery, so they had to do a C-Section. After some test it turned out that everyone was fine and healthy.

After Daisy and Jason got situated with the new one. Matt and I drove out to Cali over Valentines/Presidents Day to see our new Nephew. (I'll post those pics later)
They are doing great and he is the sweetest little boy ever!!


Little Miss Lily was born on 2/6. This is Matt's brother Hyrum and his wife Kiera. Hyrum is in the army and is stationed in Iraq right now. He went to Iraq in November for his 2nd tour.

Kiera was due on 2/2. Hyrum finally got his leave approved and left Iraq on the 3rd! Well it takes about 3 days to travel from Iraq. In the mean time Little Lily was holding on and being patient. Hyrum arrived home on the evening of 2/5, and that night Kiera's water broke. Little Miss Lily was waiting for her Daddy to get home and then was ready to come into this world. They had Lily on 2-6.

Our whole family was just praying that Hyrum would be able to be home for the birth. It was such a huge blessing for Kiera to have him there. Hyrum was able to stay for a full 2 weeks. They were able to bless Lily on 2-15. Hyrum is now back in Iraq, and he will be home in November.

I am going out to North Carolina to help out Kiera in April. We are both so excited! I can't wait to be a baby hog with Miss Lily. And to hang out and have tonz of fun with Kiera! I miss them sooo much! We can't wait for them to move out here to AZ. ;)

White Chirstmas

Time for our monthly update. Sorry I don't get around to updating you more often.
We were able to rent our friend Gina's families cabin. It was amazing being up in the mountains and being able to enjoy a White Christmas.
On Christmas Eve we drove up to Pinetop and had to dig our way to the cabin. It took us like 2 hours to dig through enough to park our cars.

Goldie and Jim were able to come up that night also and stay for a few days. It was great, we got the cabin running with water, and the heater, and a warm cozy fire.

It snowed, and snowed, and snowed. On Christmas day after opening gift we went out to play in the snow. It was awesome! Goldie, Jim, and I built snowmen. It was my first snowman ever!! Jim actually built a snow bear (for the Chicago Bears). It had ball cap and a big C on its chest. Matt built a big ice fort, with an ice chest for his snowballs and everything. Then after a long hard day of playing in the snow, we all got to catch up on a little sleep.






It was Ebby's first encounter with snow, and she LOVED it!! We had to keep her on a leash. She kept running away to investigate other animal smells.


We were going to go skiing the day after Christmas, but we were snowed in. After Matt and Jim spent about 3 hours getting stuck in the snow and trying every place in town for chains for my tires. They gave up and came back, were were able to use the 4 runner to get out and go to lunch and get some more food at the grocery store. Jim and Goldie were leaving that day to come home, so Matt and I had to prepare to hole up for a few more days.





Jim and Goldie tried to get out of town, and spent about 4 hours in traffic because of black ice, before turning around and coming back for one more night.
Matt and I had a wonderful Christmas in the snow, waking up to the snow falling, and being able to warm by the fire and make smores and hot chocolate. We were able to get out of the cabin after the finally came through and plowed the roads. We went sledding and had alot of fun. Got a little bruised up, and broke the sled pretty quick.


It was definitely a Christmas that Matt and I will always remember, even though were weren't able to go skiing.

Thanks Gina for letting us use the cabin!!

2 Month Overview

Well I am sorry it has been soooo long since I have updated our blog. As the time passes I think that our lives are to boring and that nothing new is going on. But as I download all the pics on my camera I realize that you have missed alot. So here is a quick over view.

Vessel Tour:
Karlee and I work for a shipping company, and although it may sound little, it is a rather large operation. Since we have been with Hanjin for a while they send the new hires to Long Beach to tour the terminal where all the cargo gets imported and exported. We were able to tour one of the vessels. This is one from the back, this is how all the crap that we buy from Walmart gets here. haha.

It was a little foggy that day, but the fog cleared just in time to take some good pics.

"Hanjin Dallas" was the name of the vessel. These ships are ENORMOUS!! 'It is not a boat' one guy got ridiculed cause he called it a boat. Anyways here are a few pics. It was pretty cool. This is a picture across the water, you can see all the cranes that unload containers onto the back of the semi's.


St. George Marathon:
The morning after the vessel tour, Matt and I drove up to St. George for the marathon on Sat. Matt finished with a pretty good time, considering that it rained ALL DAY on the runners. Also Matt's Ipod malfunctioned at mile 15...when Lance Armstrong came on and told him he had completed his Marathon and he had done a great job!! It then short-circuited and has not been revived since. Matt had to run the remaining mile 11 miles without any music. :( Stupid rain.
After crossing the finish line, and starting recoup all the runners were just shivering from the sweat and rain. We got Matt all warmed up with blanket, fresh close, and the heater in the car, and then went to IHOP for a huge breakfast.




St. David AZ:
Toward the end of October, Karlee and I decided it was time to take a trip to go visit Grandma Brown and my Dad in St. David AZ.
We got a good start by stopping at QT before leaving Maricopa, the kids were cheesing it up in the car. This kid could be the spokesman for slushies and Sun Chips.

We had fun playing on the grass in Grandma's front yard.

As you can see my Dad was taking the brunt of the rough-housing.

We stayed one night and headed back for work on Monday. It is always nice to get out of town, and let life slow down in St. David (you have much choice but 'slow down' in that town)


Halloween:
Tanis made up his own costume. He wanted to be a 'Monster King'!! He had this blow up crown and these fake fangs, so that is what he was... he has got an imagination. So Karlee and I made some capes for the boys.

We made Caelem the Incredible Hulk. His hair is even green.

Here is one after a big ball of cotton candy at the trunk or treat. It was 'Sour Apple' flavor. And the best cotton candy I have ever tasted!! Yummm!

And of course little Ebony needed a costume too. Although she wasn't very excited about it. She was a little Devil Dog.


Joe & Caden's Wedding:

Matt's youngest brother Joe married an AZ girl (best kind), the Sat before Thanksgiving. Her name is Caden Ash, she is from Mesa, AZ and grew up in the Mountain View High area. Some of you might now her.

We are sooo excited to have her in our family. The wedding went great and it was aweome to get to meet her family. We wish them all the best and know that they are going to do great together.

Most all of Matt's family was able to come down for it. It was great, and a little stresfull at times. But we had a blast, and it was really good to see everyone!!

Matt and Joe.

Almost all the sister-in-laws and I. (We miss you Keira!!)


Thanksgiving:

We had Thanksgiving at Karlee's house this year, and I was still asigned to cook the turkey!! How does that work??

Anyways it was great. My Dad was able to come up for it. And Goldie and her kids. There was alot of food, and alot of loud crazy kids! Kennedy and Libby.

Goldie with hot mashed potatoes and Karlee with a big knife. My $ is on Karlee.

We had a blast.

Don't forget Tommy, he came out of the cave to get some grub, and then back for more football!!

I think next year it is at my house again. I think I will asign Karlee to do the Turkey. I have have enough of turkey necks and gibblets. Gross!!!!!!!